Xebe's visit to Taiwan, winter 2013

Ana's sister Xenia made the long and harrowing journey from N. America to Taiwan. Yay!  Here are two weeks of fun and silliness:

Xebe in Taiwan

Nearly finished Finals Madness!

Just knocked off two more big tests!
I am now one presentation, one paper and one exam away from Winter Vacation! All three are the most demanding ones, but at least I've got the smaller fish out of the way.
In a week, I plan on sleeping like a champ and planning my sister's visit to this wee Lil island! Whoohoo!
Until then, back to the books...

Into the Arts! 2012, part 4

Christmas is nearly upon us!!!! YAAAAAAAAY! Thank you all who've put a little something into the mail for us this year or have otherwise wished us a merry holiday season.

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of joining an amateur cast for the live rendition of a radio-version (read without too many additions of costumes or props, sound effects made by the actors, in short - a use-your-imagination sort of a performance) of A CRISTMAS CAROL - such fun!

That mean, odious, stingy, conniving old Scroooooooooge! 

I played Belle, his fiancee in the trip to his past, and Martha Cratchitt, Tiny Tim's sister, in visits to present and future. I also joined in the carol singing, wind-whooshing, door-bell chiming, ghostly moaning and general background chatter. 

Still waiting for some photos or video of our performance, but in the meantime, a similar though not identical group of actors doing the show will be aired on the local radio station ICRT on Christmas Eve and twice on Christmas Day.  I think you can even tune in worldwide - http://www.icrt.com.tw/listen_online.php?pageOneId=6&pageTwoId=18&poId=3&ptId=1

Although I wasn't in this version, some of these guys are really amazing, so give it a listen! ICRT Taiwan Radio Presentation of "A Christmas Carol" - Dec 24-25- 8:00 AM & 5:00PM

December 24 at 5:00pm

(Note: Taipei is on China Standard time, currently 13 hours ahead of EST)

HUMBUG AND FLUMMERY!!! ; ) and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

http://www.icrt.com.tw/ or FM100

Into the Arts! 2012, Part 1

I've been dabbling in some artsy-pants business this year. Yay! Here's the first installment.

I do some various wordsmith-ing for my professor, at times editing or translating her academic research papers, but recently writing short skits and comics to introduce Chinese vocabulary to beginner learners. Right at the beginning of summer, she had myself and two other classmates go down to 台中 (Taichung), where her husband works in another university as a multimedia instructor. Him and his students filmed us in front of a green screen and we just recently got links to the close-to-finished videos complete with background and subtitles.  Here is a selection.

Be prepared for "camp," nicely rounded out by Chinglish subtitles and occasionally hearing the director yell "Cut!" at the end of the skit. Teehee

L5: 好運數字 - Lucky Numbers

I really botched up the vocab pronunciation on this one... haha... learn from Kevin, not from me.
If you look really carefully, the shelf eats his head at one point.
Oh, and for this to make sense, I'm supposed to be a Chinese or Taiwanese exchange student.


L8: 跟⋯⋯一樣⋯⋯ - As...as...

In case it's not obvious, my character is a ditzy secretary. In our defense, this was the last one of the day and we were exhausted. Also, credit where it's due - another student wrote this script.

大 = big       聰明 = smart       笨 = dumb

L7: 你有⋯⋯嗎？ - Do you have..?


L1: 你好嗎？ - How are you?

Probably my favorite at the moment. All three of us got to be in it. And it's just silly.

Cast and crew after the filming

Kevin, Tim, Ana

Sunshine

I now have a Saturday morning job that's turning out pretty well. It's an all-girls high school, I have about 18 students for 3 hours of Conversation English and they're pretty agreeable, so who can ask for more?
I ride the skytrain for about 20 minutes and then walk along this lakeside. Not too shabby on a sunny day!